The new variety was selected from among a population of seedlings derived from the deliberate crossing of the varieties named ‘Maru’ (not patented) as the seed parent and ‘Briteblue’ (not patented) as the pollen parent, located at Ruakura, Hamilton, New Zealand. F128 was identified as having potential as a new variety and was asexually propagated by cuttings. The plant was first asexually reproduced by personnel of The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited located at the research centre at Bisley Road, Ruakura, Hamilton, New Zealand. The resulting plants were subsequently found to be true to type demonstrating that the characteristics of the new variety are stable and transmitted without change through succeeding generations. Since the initial propagation in vitro propagation has also been carried out successfully. F128 was later given the denomination ‘Velluto Blue’.